By Aemon Malone, Digtaltrends.com, March 7, 2011

NPR, formally known as National Public Radio, has had it with trolling trolls and spamming spammers plying their trade in the comments the sections of npr.org Web pages. The public radio service has decided to take a rather unique approach to prevent the ad hominem, shamelessly vile and abusive comments that are the trademark of the 21st century Internet troll.

Last week, NPR announced that it had instituted a vetting process for new commenters on its website....

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A 5-minute framework for fostering better conversations in comments sections
By Matt Thompson, Poynter.org, March 7, 2011

Last week, my news organization announced we were evolving our online commenting practices a bit to improve the quality of discourse on NPR.org.

Our comment threads drew some attention recently when a comment thread about the brutal assault on CBS Correspondent Lara Logan in Egypt went awry, prompting the removal of dozens of comments and an editor’s note reiterating the discussion guidelines.  Meanwhile in another corner of the Web, a related discussion of sexual harrassment of women in Egypt unfolded with civility, thoughtfulness, and occasionally even erudition (and also – fair warning — some profanity here and there).

What gives? Why are these two online conversations so different? I spoke with community managers at both sites — NPR’s Eyder Peralta and MetaFilter’s Jessamyn West — to put together a framework for how to think about online comments. What follows is distilled from those conversations.....